Moving on from Clarity, suggestions?

Important some, not so much to others, but...
The Hyundai/Kia PHEVs do not have a source of heat other than the ICE. In any situation where you want cabin heat you need to fire the ICE and bring it up to temp.

 

AFAIK, they've run incentives back-to-back for years and Honda's new incentives will start a day after these expire on 1/4. There are incentives for 21 currently as well, they're just less than for the 2020s. ($3000 on the 2021 vs $6500 on the 2020)

You can pull up the incentives yourself through the costcoauto site, go to "manufacturer incentives". Costcoauto discloses the MFR to dealer incentives for Honda. But, AFAIK, it may take a few days for the "new" incentives to show up on the costco site when they're active.

 

If anyone is looking for a bargain, GM is now putting $17K (!) discounts on the 2020 Chevy Bolt. 259 mile range. You can pick up a fully loaded Premier for $26K. Tempting, but I'm waiting to see the new Bolt SUV.

 

Or Nissan Leaf SV Plus, with 215mi range, around 29K. After Fed $7500 + state, should be at least at 21.5K
I personally prefer the look of Nissan Leaf vs the look of the Bolt

 

I ask have a 2018 Clarity which we use as a daily driver and we've had no issues to date. When it comes time to replace it I'll take a serious look at the Toyota RAV4 Prime which has a similar electric range to the Clarity and comes with good reliability, space, comfort and towing capacity.

 

We own a 2019 Niro PHEV. We bought in in May of 2019.

After 1 1/2 years and 23,000 mile's = no problems

Average about 30 miles EV capability on a full charge- in ideal conditions avg around 34 miles in EV- in winter avg around 24 miles in EV.

Gas mileage per gallon is in the neighborhood of 45 to 50 mpg depending on the season.

With a full tank of gas and a full charge the range of this vehicle will consistently approach 600 miles.

Hatch back with fold down rear seats allow good cargo carrying capacity.

Very nice economical utilitarian vehicle that you would never guess was a plug in hybrid or draw any attention to yourself.

 

We had a Chevy Volt that we liked a lot, so you could look for a used model, but as you suggest, the Leaf (which I currently drive) is also a good alternative.

 

Pacifica hybrid is pretty nice. Our 2020 goes about 35 miles on a charge and we're getting a bit over 50 mpg overall. Dealers around here are taking over $10K off msrp on 2020s, and there's a $7500 federal tax credit.

 

I don't know where you are, but if California and your travels are within the state, the Clarity fuel cell is worth a look. $400 a month, fuel included, 20k annual mileage allowance. I'm in my 4th year with mine and it's been great.

 

We got rid of our 2018 Clarity which was leased, and leased a 2020 Nissan Leaf. Pure EV. 215 mile range. No gasoline.

 

Hi Melisa, Happy New Year! Here's my two cents, firstly, I'm not sure if you have another vehicle but the reason that we picked the Clarity is we have only one vehicle and when we go on long trips, we use the engine in Hybrid mode, the infrastructure for charging stations here in Canada is not that great so don't want to depend on an available station when we go on long trips. Having said that, we seldom go outside of Vancouver so the 95 kilometer range is more than enough for us to get around town daily. If you have another ICE vehicle in your family, than you can go all out on a BEV vehicle like the Kona EV or Bolt EV. If this will be your only vehicle, then I suggest you go with a new Clarity PHEV as this is really your best bet. Just so you know, Honda is not making any money on this vehicle as this car is made mainly for meeting emission standards requirement for Honda. I have owned my 2019 Clarity since May of 2019 and I have only put in $14.25 worth of gas in it so far, my car can go as far as 105 kilometers in the summer and 68 kilometers in the winter. It is very reliable and comfortable, with the federal and provincial rebates of $10k, I paid $37,600 taxes included. I had a charging station installed at my garage for $250 with a free charging from Chargepoint. I rarely charge it at home as there are ample free charging stations around at malls and community centres. Frankly speaking, the infrastructure for charging is incomplete outside of metro areas for the next 3-5 years so PHEV is the way to go for now. Other than the Clarity, you may also want to look at the Niro PHEV, the Ioniq PHEV or the Toyota Rav 4 Prime. Hope this helps. LMK if you have any questions. Cheers.

 

Melisa, when you say your commute is 20 miles, is that each way or Round Trip?

What were the HVAC problems you had with the Clarity?

I second the suggestions of the Toyota RAV4 Prime--and that fits your price range (other SUV suggestions may not), EV driving range concerns. What would you use the new car for? The base model of the RAV4 Prime will not be too much more than a Clarity (you should be able to get one under your $45k limit--IF you can find one) and you get AWD and a SUV. If you don't need a AWD SUV, then consider the cheaper PHEV and BEV. But, the main problem I have with the RAV4 Prime is that you get the slower (3.3kW compared to 6.6kW of the Honda) onboard charger unless you buy the top line RAV4, and that costs over $50k. Otherwise, it takes much longer to charge your car (4.5 hours vs 2.5 hours) on a 240V line.

This may be significant if you do a significant amount of your charging away from home inpublic places where you are not charging your car for 4 hours. I find it easier to top off a half-full Honda with a 1 hour shopping trip, and the lower end models of a RAV4 would only add half as much to the battery in that time.

If Honda offers incentives again and you were otherwise happy with the Clarity, you may want to look to see what is available this year (there are no major differences between the 2020 and 2021 Clarity models). Check what your final price, including local, state rebates and the $7500 federal credit amount to with your total cost. With our 2019 Clarity, the final cost, including taxes, came to about $18k for a new Clarity, and that's much lower than other lesser new cars.

So, check that final cost before considering paying about $20k for a used EV, PHEV, etc.

 

It looks as if Honda has misguidedly limited Honda Clarity sales to only California

https://insideevs.com/news/363526/honda-clarity-plug-in-hybrid-sales-california/

 

That's an old article.

 

The article is16 months old but seemed accurate

Honda has discontinued selling the all electric Clarity completely
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/honda-clarity-electric-discontinued-availability/

Looking on True Car for Plug in Clarity Inventory for USA I saw only 400 or so listings. Is this car available outside California?
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/low-demand-honda-clarity-phev-northeast-region/

It is good news if this car is available nationwide now!

 

I'm holding my breath to hear someone was able to buy a RAV4 Prime at anything close to MSRP (whereas people on this forum often report buying a Clarity PHEV for $10K off MSRP). Come to think of it, I haven't heard of anyone actually being able to buy a RAV4 Prime at any price.

 

It's a perfect second car. Cheap, reliable, good amount of features. I had a 2019 Leaf non-Plus that I put 50k miles on and traded it in for a 2020 SV Plus with Tech and All Weather packages. Definitely get the Tech package because there's a rebate of $1000-$2000 depending on state so it's like almost free. That comes with power driver's seat, ProPilot, Homelink, LED headlights. The All Weather package comes with heated front seats, heated steering wheel, and a heat pump. My two favorite features are ProPilot and the heated steering wheel. ProPilot uses adaptive cruise control and lane centering to keep you in your lane. It only works when there's well defined line markers and long turns. You must keep some resistance on the steering wheel or it will warn you after 10 seconds. If you don't touch The wheel after the warning, it will turn on the emergency lights and brake. The adaptive cruise control doesn't work as well in the Clarity plus there's no lane centering. I drive a lot so I love not having to stop for gas twice weekly and doing oil changes.

Here's the bad things about the Leaf: no thermal battery management, no telescopic steering wheel, and Chademo DC charging. With no thermal battery management, the battery will get too hot after a couple of DC charges. When the battery gets hot, it will only charge at about 1/3 of normal DC charge rate. So don't plan to using this to travel more than 400 miles a day. That's why it's good as a second car. No telescoping steering wheel not a problem for me, but test drive it to see if you have any problems. CCS will be the standard charging (for non Tesla) in the future. Don't need to worry about this if you don't take it on trips.

Since your commute is short, I would recommend leasing a SV, you can get it for around $7/m plus taxes and $735 down in CA.

https://www.nissanofsacramento.com

https://www.northbaynissan.com/

 

You can check on the incentives available, such as the Nissan Leaf, which offers them through some employers and electric utilities.

They are replacing it with the Ariya though.